US close: Stocks mixed after Fed minutes reaction

Wall Street stocks closed mixed on Thursday, after investors digested minutes from the FOMC's latest meeting and this week's jobless claims figures from the Labor Department.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.19% at 34,894.12, while the S&P 500 rose 0.13% to 4,405.80 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.11% to 14,541.79.

The Dow Jones closed 66.57 points lower on Thursday, extending the heavy losses recorded in the previous session following the publication of the minutes from the Fed's latest policy meeting.

Those minutes revealed that the majority of the US central bank's top policymakers judged that the Federal Reserve would be able to slow its bond purchases later in 2021.

According to the minutes of the 27-28 July meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, Fed officials thought they were now firmly on track to meet their inflation goal, while progress had been made on achieving full employment.

Several rate-setters believed that tapering would likely be more appropriate in 2022, the minutes showed.

However, a number of Fed officials also aired their doubts regarding the medium-term trend for both prices and jobs, pointing out the possibility that they could undershoot the central bank's goals.

Also weighing on sentiment, Goldman Sachs cut its economic growth forecast for the current quarter from 9% to 5.5%, citing higher-than-expected inflation for the remainder of the year,

On the macro front, jobless claims continued trending lower in the week ended 14 August, according to the Department of Labor, with the number of people filing unemployment claims for the first time falling by 29,000 to 348,000.

Economists had pencilled in a smaller decline to 365,000.

The four-week moving average of initial claims also retreated, down 19,000 to 377,750, while secondary jobless claims dropped by 79,000 to 2.82m.

Elsewhere, manufacturing activity in the US mid-Atlantic region slowed in August as firms ran down their inventory levels, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's factory sector index, which slipped from a reading of 21.9 for July to 19.4 a month later.

Consensus had been for a print of 24.2.

Lastly, the Conference Board's leading economic index increased by 0.9% in July to 116.0, following a 0.5% increase in June and a 1.2% increase in May.

In the corporate space, Robinhood Markets shares were in the red by 10.26% after posting its first earnings report as a listed company.

Nvidia shares were in the green by 3.98% after the chipmaker's quarterly earnings and revenue beat analysts' expectations on the back of strong graphic card sales.

Department store chain Macy's leapt 19.59% after it posted second-quarter profits and revenues that topped expectations on the Street, with the group also moving to hike its outlook for 2021.

Dow Jones - Risers

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $57.27 3.84%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $427.89 2.53%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $296.77 2.08%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $144.99 1.18%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $78.46 0.86%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $178.57 0.78%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $253.07 0.74%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $150.11 0.68%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $56.86 0.64%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $52.44 0.48%